1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to facial skin care appliances and, more specifically, to a Handheld Motorized Facial Brush Having Pivoting, Floating Head.
2. Description of Related Art
Facial massage and skin treatment devices are widely known in the art. One particular functional feature that has not been widely implemented is the device having a face-hugging or “floating” treatment head. The advantage of a floating head is that the face of the treatment head will tend to remain in contact with the user's skin while traversing the irregular topography that tends to define a person's face in particular.
Specific examples of devices in this field are listed herein.
Facial/Skin Treatment Devices:
Vigil, U.S. Pat. No. 5,891,063 is a “Skin Rejuvinating System” that includes a rotating bi-level brush. No floating capability. Harris, U.S. Pat. No. D612,612 discloses a design that appears to be a rotating and somewhat pivoting treatment brush. Roth, U.S. Pat. No. D549,964 shows the shape of a motorized facial brush without suggesting any pivoting motion. Akridge, U.S. Pat. No. 7,789,092 and Roth, U.S. Pat. No. 7,386,906 are related to the Roth design patent reference, but fail to suggest any pivoting motion or the light/vibration/microcurrent emissions. Pilcher, U.S. Pat. No. 7,320,691 discloses an “Apparatus and Method for Acoustic/Mechanical Treatment of Early Stage Acne”—while this reference does relate to the field of the instant invention, but it does not disclose any pivoting or floating head design.
Utility Cleaning Devices:
Murphy, U.S. Pat. No. 5,950,268 is a “Hand-held Scrubbing Device” for a utility scrubber (such as for bathroom walls) that couples a rotating brush head with a pivoting motion. Murphy fails to suggest internal vibration, LED lighting, microcurrent. Furthermore, the Murphy pivoting head assembly is comprised of a complex pivot ball joint design that seems quite costly to implement.
Madison, U.S. Pat. No. 5,423,102 for a “Portable Cleaning Device” that implements a rotating/reciprocating cleaning head (brushes and other implements), that uses a textured pivot ball to transfer torque from the drive motor to the cleaning head. Like Murphy, Madison fails fails to suggest internal vibration, LED lighting or microcurrent emissions.
Guyuron, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20060168746 for a “Personal Cleaning Device” has a flexible cleaning head that can rotate or oscillate. It further discloses a plurality of different brush, sponge and abrasive pad cleaning heads and covers. Munn, U.S. Pat. No. 7,937,792 is a “Pole Scrubber” that has an external pivoting cam—not suitable for floating design or for facial skin care. Schonewille, U.S. Pat. No. 7,707,674, discloses a wide variety of handheld cleaning devices having motorized brush heads, but none of these devices has a flexible brush substrate or other pivoting mechanisms suitable for a hygienic facial massage/scrubbing device. France, U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 20050066996 and 20050199265 disclose a stain removal brush, but with a head that only tilts and does not “float” or “pivot.”
Toothbrushes:
Phgura, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20110138563 is a motorized toothbrush having at least one embodiment with a ball-joint pivoting/rotating head.
Electric Shavers
Oswald, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20020157257 does disclose a shaver having a pivoting head having flexible screens, but the structure of that pivoting design only permits pivoting along a single axis (rather than in all axes passing through the head). Schmitt, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20100275446, discloses a set of three pivoting heads. The Schmitt heads do pivot around rotating drive shafts, but the re-centering (i.e. the force urging the heads to be coplanar with the shaver face) is created by a somewhat complex, spring-loaded design that is not suitable for the moist environment in which facial skin care devices are generally used. Tanaka, U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,324 discloses a three-bladed shaver that flexes on a group of “cushion elements” that appear to be soft mounting connections between the blades and the shaver housing. The cushioning elements are not directly interconnected to the shaver head, nor are they rotatable. Messinger, U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,168 describes a complex system that has the motor and shaver head pivot along a single axis.
Shimizu, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20110030220 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,743,508 and 7,370,420 is a rotary shaver that does have an internal pivot ball, but does not include a pliable support cup for restoring the head to its rest position. Okabe, like the Shimizu references, has pivot balls but no pliable support cup.
Careful review of these prior devices reveals that the following references fails to suggest and internal vibrating mechanism to provide massaging force without the requirement for the head to oscillate or rotate. Furthermore, none of these prior devices has a floating head mechanism that is suitable for the moist, hygienic environment of facial skin care.